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Arrogance Hidden In 'Sir Gawain And The Loathly Lady'

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Arrogance Hidden in Plain Sight: “Sir Gawain and The Loathly Lady” The definition of arrogant is characterized by one’s sense of self-importance and superiority. This is by far the exact same character Sir Gawain portrays in the short text “Sir Gawain and The Loathly Lady” by Selina Hastings. The text begins as the King Arthur stumbles upon a large issue that puts him and his kingdom at risk. King Arthur is stumped but when he is met with the Loathly Lady in the forest who holds the key to his answer, in order to save himself, he must be burdened with marrying the old, ugly woman to one of his loyal knights. Sir Gawain volunteers himself first without putting any thought into the consequences, thus he is appalled by the Loathly Lady only until …show more content…

On the whole, Gawain is very pushy when it comes to fulfilling tasks that has consequences he is not fully aware of. To illustrate, Gawain is very desperate to prove himself loyal of the king: “On hearing Arthur’s words he [Gawain] leapt up, scattering the ivory chessmen at his feet. ‘Sire I beg you, let me defend you! Grant me the quest, that I may be the one to save the honour of my king!’ ” (Hastings 179). Evidently, Gawain is so desperate to volunteer even for a quest he does not know anything about since the King did not explain it yet, showing that Gawain does not think through his decisions which means he is a little over confident in himself. To add, Gawain is always trying to volunteer for quests first. In other words, Gawain is King Arthur’s favourite knight: “Arthur loved this knight [Gawain], always the first to come forward, ever ready to put his courage to the test” (Hastings 179). In this situation, Arthur is feeding Gawain’s ego all while being blinded by his courageous efforts when he is actually just cocky from his previous successes. To sum up, Gawain easily disguises his cocky attributes with his seemingly brave and loyal doings. In turn, this is not the only reason to classify Gawain as arrogant when he is shallow as …show more content…

In short, Gawain’s actions and thoughts demonstrate his shallow beliefs such as only caring about looks. As evidence, Gawain is upset but only with the Loathly Lady’s appearance: “with a groan he [Gawain] flung himself into a chair[…] was he to spend the rest of his life shackled to a creature more hideous than the demon of a nightmare” (Hastings 180). According to this, the only reason Gawain groaned is not because he feels he is too young to be wed with somebody he does not love, but that he is wed with a “creature more hideous than the demon of a nightmare” which means he would most definitely react differently if the Loathly Lady were beautiful. Secondly, Gawain believes that infatuation equals to love while being blinded only by beauty. For instance, “but when at midday Gawain finally appeared, leading his bride into the hall[…]the pair were so happy and so in love” (Hastings 181). When the Loathly Lady was ugly Gawain was very unhappy, however now that she has become beautiful, all of a sudden the two are very “in love” when logically is it impossible to fall in love over the course of only one night. For these reasons, Gawain is a shallow man because he only cares about one’s appearance rather than what is on the

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Aswell he was ambitious because even before the King had told him what he would have to do to bring the King honor he volunteered without a second thought. Perseverance was a trait shown in the story, even after he say the Loathly Lady he stayed true to his word and married her. He was also demonstrated courage. When the novel stated “Gawain looked stunned, but his spirit never faltered.” it shows his bravery and courage, for these character traits come from within and he may have been scared but he worked through it.

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